Category: North Korea

If the North Koreans cannot get their rocket to work after receiving assistance from the Russians they might as well give up trying:

This file photo, taken Oct. 18, 2023, shows Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho speaking in an interview with Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV. (Yonhap)

North Korea appears to have been receiving technical assistance from Russia over the launch of a military spy satellite, and there is a “very high” chance for the North to press ahead with it once the country completes fixing technical glitches, South Korea’s unification minister said Monday.

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho made the remark during a meeting with a group of reporters amid speculation that North Korea is in the final stage of its preparations to make a third attempt to put a military spy satellite into orbit after its failed attempts in May and August.

“It is hard to predict when North Korea will make the third attempt for the launch. But there seem to be signs of the North receiving technical assistance from Russia,” Kim said in a meeting marking his 100th day in office.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is one of the few industries that North Korea actually excels at so it makes sense they would want to celebrate it:

North Korea has designated a “missile industry day” to mark a test-firing of its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in 2022, the North’s state media reported Sunday. 

North Korea test-fired the ICBM on Nov. 18, 2022, with leader Kim Jong-un declaring that the missile reaffirmed his regime’s acquisition of a powerful and reliable capability to counter any nuclear threats.

Nov. 18 was designated as the “missile industry day” because it displayed “the might of a world-class nuclear power and the strongest ICBM possessor was demonstrated to the whole world,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will soon see if whatever assistance the Russians provided the North Koreans in exchange for weapons is sucessful or not:

North Korea is believed to be in the final stage of preparations to carry out what would be its third satellite launch after two failed attempts earlier this year, South Korea’s spy agency was quoted as reporting to lawmakers.

After its second attempt failed in August, the North said it would try again in October. But no such launch has happened, and the North has given no word as to why the launch has been postponed and when it will take place.

“North Korea is believed to be in the middle of the final stages of preparations, such as carrying out checks on its engines and launch systems,” the National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported to the parliamentary intelligence committee during a closed-door audit session, according to Rep. Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power Party.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is rare type of defection if these four were in fact planning to defect:

A South Korean vessel tows a wooden boat that crossed the inter-Korean border to a port in the coastal county of Yangyang, 150 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Yonhap)

 A group of four unidentified individuals from North Korea crossed the eastern maritime inter-Korean border on a wooden boat early Tuesday, officials said, in an apparent attempt to defect to South Korea.

The Coast Guard and military officials secured the 7.5-meter-long boat carrying the North Koreans in waters east of Sokcho, 151 kilometers northeast of Seoul, a military official said, after South Korean fishermen at the scene reported seeing an “unusual” boat at around 7:10 a.m.

The group consists of one man and three women, according to Coast Guard officials. Details of their identities have not been made known.

Lim Jae-kil, one of the fishermen who were at the scene, recalled seeing a man who appeared to be in his 30s wearing boots and oil-stained clothing, and two women, presumably in their 30s and 50s, respectively.

The individuals did not express their intent to defect to the South but asked where they were and remarked on how “nice” Lim’s boat was, he said.

Lim said he had never seen such a boat in his more than 40 years of life as a fisherman, adding it appeared to have the engine of a cultivator.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the last maritime defection from North Korea was back in 2019 according to the article.

It looks like things really are returning back to normal in post-COVID North Korea:

North Korea is witnessing an escalation in terror, as the totalitarian state has increasingly relied on public executions, a move by its dictator Kim Jong-un to strengthen his grip over national governance.

According to reports citing an informed source with insights into North Korean internal affairs, the number of public executions has been massively increased. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea saw an average of about 10 public executions annually, but over the past year, this number has surged to an estimated 100 or more.

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea took measures to reduce public executions significantly in a bid to prevent the spread of infections. However, with the pandemic subsiding and human interactions increasing, these gruesome acts have resurged.

“North Korea public executions occur relatively frequently,” Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Department of Reunification Strategy Studies at the Sejong Institute, said.

“These executions cover a wide range of cases, including heinous crimes, drug smuggling, and, in rare instances, individuals caught producing and selling prohibited content, including South Korean dramas.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

North Korea once again spouting nothing, but a bunch of hot air. An attack on a U.S. aircraft carrier would lead to ending of the regime and they know it:

North Korea threatened Friday to stage the “most powerful and rapid first strike” against U.S. strategic assets deployed to the Korean Peninsula, in the latest bellicose rhetoric that underscored Pyongyang’s concerns about U.S. military capabilities in the region.

The nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier docked at the southeastern port of Busan on Thursday for a five-day visit — the first since September 2022 — in a show of force against North Korea. The visit came soon after trilateral naval drills involving the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.